Sideways Cushion Cut Ametrine Ring with Ridged Sides in 14k Yellow Gold

Ametrine is one stone carrying two colours, and this one is set sideways so you get the whole run of them across the finger rather than pointing up it. Warm golden citrine holds one end, amethyst purple holds the other, and the boundary comes down through the middle of the table as a soft line rather than a hard edge. Four small ball prongs take the corners, which is all the metal the stone needs at this size. Either side of it, the shank is wrapped in a short stack of ridged gold collars before it tapers away polished and plain. 4.50 grams of 14k yellow gold.

The sideways setting is the reason this ring wears the way it does. A long stone set the usual way points down the finger and reads narrow and formal; turned across, it sits between the knuckles, fills the hand widthways, and stops competing with the length of the finger — which is why setting a long stone sideways keeps coming back into fashion, and why it suits a smaller hand particularly well. There is a second decision inside the stone: in a two-colour quartz the cutter chooses where the colour boundary lands relative to the table, and the zones in the rough do not run parallel to anything convenient. Put that line off to one side and it reads as an accident; bring it through the middle of the table and it reads as the point of the stone. How many gems get to be two things at once?